Legislation goes beyond education reform, ice

By Bruce Dunford
Associated Press

The issues found in nearly 3,000 bills introduced in the House and Senate this year, as in every other year, range from the magnificent to the mundane.

Gaining the most attention are efforts to reform the public-school system, confront an epidemic of illegal drug use and balance a $3.3 billion budget for the next fiscal year.

Important to their advocates and of concern to their opponents are several hundred other measures advancing through the legislative process with little public or news media notice.

The Senate Committee on Water, Land and Agriculture wants $25,000 to have the state study shark activity along Oahu's Leeward Coast "by tagging them and monitoring their movements."

The committee said it's pursuing the study because of the "growing incidents of shark attacks in this state."

The House Committee on Water, Land Use and Hawaiian Affairs has approved and sent to the Judiciary Committee a bill to correct an error in state law that describes the Great Seal of the State "by clarifying that: Kamehameha I is standing on the left side and the Goddess of Liberty is on the right side."

The Senate's Education and Military Affairs Committees have the military in mind. One bill would give companies that employ National Guard or military reservists an income tax credit equal to 5 percent of each qualified employee's annual pay up to $1,000.

It recognizes that the increase in the number of Guard and reservists being deployed impose hardships on their employers by decreasing their workforce, the committees said.

The committees also want an unspecified appropriation, initially put at $1 million, to be used for tuition assistance for National Guard members enrolled at the University of Hawai'i as an incentive to remain in the Guard.

Some other bills getting little notice include:

• Making hazing of students in schools and colleges a misdemeanor, subject to a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.
• Enforcing an individual's right of privacy from intrusion by cellular telephones equipped with digital cameras.
• Giving public-school teachers a tax credit of up to $500 as a retention incentive and to compensate them for out-of-pocket purchases of supplies for their students.